Infra spending to be close to Plan target of $500 bn: Montek

NEW DELHI: The government will almost achieve the 11th Five-Year Plan's infrastructure investment target of $500 billion, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Monday.

"In the 11th plan our estimate is that we will come quite close to $500 billion that was originally set as target," Ahuluwalia said after releasing a book titled Public Private Partnership in Infrastructure- Perspective Principle, Practices here.

"This is dominantly because we will exceed target in telecom and oil pipelines," he said, there will be a shortfall in roads, ports and power segment.

Of the total, he said, 30 per cent of the investment is expected to come from Public Private Partnerships (PPP) mode.

The Commission had set a $500 billion target of investment in the infrastructure sector during the 2001-12 plan period.

The Deputy Chairman also said that the investment in the infrastructure under PPP mode during the current plan is impressive.

Good number of infrastructure projects are being executed under PPP mode, he added.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had said that investment in infrastructure sector should be doubled to an ambitious $one trillion (Rs 41 lakh crore) during the 12th Five Year Plan ending 2017 from the current level.

He underscored the need for private participation for achieving the one trillion dollar investment target, which is four times than that of the Xth plan and double from the XIth, but said lack of financial viability of many of the projects could come in the way.